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Domenic Richardi will be the new Carroll County sheriff. (Larissa Mulkern/Union Leader Correspondent)

Richardi wins Carroll County Sheriff seat

By LARISSA MULKERNUnion Leader Correspondent

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OSSIPEE — Domenic Richardi of Conway will return to the Carroll County Sheriff's office -; this time as its leader -; after defeating challenger Francis Lord of West Ossipee by a sizable margin.

Richardi, who earned nomination on both the Republican and Democrat tickets, challenged Lord, a retired N.H. State Trooper, state police helicopter pilot and undercover drug agent, who ran as an Independent. The tally for the 19 towns in Carroll County was 20,617 votes for Richardi, and 5,381 votes for Lord.

Contacted Wednesday, Richardi said he was pleased and humbled by the results.';I'm very excited and pleasantly surprised,'; he said, adding that he thought he would lose some towns, like Moultonborough, to Lord, which he didn't. Voters in that town cast more than 2,000 votes for Richardi and 641 for Lord.

Richardi ran against Sheriff Christopher Conley two years ago and lost. This time around, he defeated Conley by 140 votes in the primary. Lord ran as an independent and while his name was not on the primary ballot, he did collect more than double the amount of required nomination papers to appear on the ballot in the general election.

Richardi attributed his successful campaign to his large network of supporters, including many area police departments, his family, and colleagues from the department. Another plus was having nominations from both political parties.

';That definitely helped,'; he said.

Since retiring from the Sheriff's Department, where he served for 17 years, in 2010, Richardi has worked as a part-time police officer and had kept up on his certification. During the campaign, he said he would repair morale at the department, work to retain staff, and restart some department functions such as the accident reconstruction team that had been deactivated for some time.

';It will feel good to be back at the Sheriff's Office where I spent so much of my career,'; he said.